Health News Roundup: Genetics play bigger role in autism risk; Merck's biosimilar to AbbVie's Humira wins FDA approval

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Heart attacks, strokes increase when patients can't afford newer cholesterol drugs

Patients at high risk for heart disease who cannot afford newer cholesterol-lowering medications are more likely to have heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events within just one year compared to counterparts who were able to get the drugs, a new study suggests. Clinical trials have shown that the new drugs, called PCSK9 inhibitors, can lower LDL-cholesterol significantly and also improve cardiovascular outcomes in people who don't get enough benefit from statin drugs, which are the first-line treatment for high cholesterol.

Sanofi signs U.S. rights deal with Roche for flu treatment Tamiflu

French drugs and healthcare group Sanofi said on Tuesday it had signed a rights deal with Roche for the 'Tamiflu' product in the United States. The deal will give Sanofi exclusive U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) rights to Tamiflu, which is used for the prevention and treatment of flu.

Senators announce bipartisan proposal to lower drug prices

The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee announced a proposal to lower prescription drug prices on Tuesday that could save $100 billion in costs to government healthcare programs, and said the committee would vote on the legislation on Thursday. The committee's chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley, and its leading Democrat, Senator Ron Wyden, said in a statement they had been working on the bipartisan plan to "address the broken prescription drug supply chain" for six months.

U.S. coal miners discouraged by black lung meeting with McConnell

A group of coal miners afflicted with black lung disease met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday as part of an effort to convince lawmakers to restore a higher excise tax on coal companies to help fund their medical care, but several said the meeting left them discouraged. McConnell, the Republican leader who represents Kentucky - one of the states that has seen a rebound in the progressive respiratory illness - told them their benefits would be safe but gave no assurances about the excise tax and left without answering questions or offering details, several of the miners who attended the meeting said.

Medicare-for-all might not cause surge in hospital use

Medicare-for-all and other versions of universal coverage being proposed for the U.S. by several presidential hopefuls wouldn't necessarily lead more people to seek hospital care, a new analysis suggests. Critics of Medicare-for-all have raised concerns that it might lead to a surge in use of inpatient services, because people with comprehensive health insurance tend to use more hospital care than people with bare-bones benefits, researchers note in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Merck's biosimilar to AbbVie's Humira wins FDA approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Merck & Co Inc's biosimilar to AbbVie Inc's blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis treatment Humira, the health agency said on Tuesday. The drug, Hadlima, is manufactured by Samsung Bioepis Co Ltd for Merck and comes with a boxed warning, the FDA's harshest. The agency flagged increased risk of serious infections, including tuberculosis and bacterial sepsis. (https://bit.ly/30QH1M3)

Multidrug-resistant malaria spreading in Southeast Asia: study

A strain of malaria resistant to two key drugs has spread rapidly from Cambodia and has become dominant in Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand, with a "terrifying prospect" that it could reach Africa, scientists warned on Monday, Using genomic surveillance to track the spread of drug-resistant malaria, the scientists found that the strain, known as KEL1/PLA1, had also evolved and picked up new genetic mutations that may make it yet more resistant.

Letterbox campaign helps Afghans cope with silent war of mental health

Hundreds of Afghans, weary of war and unsure of the future, have joined a letter-writing campaign to share their feelings with the powerful few who will decide on peace with the Taliban and, with it, the fate of their country. The letters from different parts of Afghanistan express a tangled mix of confusion, resignation and fear.

Multiple sclerosis drug helps Biogen beat Wall St. profit expectations

Biogen Inc reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and raised its 2019 earnings forecast on Tuesday, driven by higher sales of its top-selling multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera and lower taxes. Shares of the U.S. biotechnology company rose more than 5% to $244.74.

Genetics play bigger role in autism risk than environmental factors

Most of the variation in risk for autism may be explained by genetics rather than differences in environmental factors like lifestyle or community characteristics or certain pregnancy outcomes, a study in five countries suggests. Autism spectrum disorder has long been thought to involve inherited genetic traits, and some previous research also suggest that some non-inherited traits and maternal characteristics may also play a role. For the current study, researchers examined data on births from 1998 to 2007 in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Israel, and Western Australia.

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